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Topic: What is everyone reading? (Read 468047 times)

James how the heck are you comfortable asking you parents for books called "Way of the Ascetics" and stuff written by people named Theophylact but you're too scared to have icons or pray in front of them?

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Apart from moral conduct, all that man thinks himself able to do in order to become acceptable to God is mere superstition and religious folly. - Immanuel Kant

1) The House of the Dead and Poor Folk, by Fyodor Dostoevsky2) The Best Short Stories of Dostoevsky, by Fyodor Dostoevsky3) Dostoevsky: The Man and His Work, by Julius Meier-Graefe, trans. by Herbert H. Marks

If you will, you can become all flame.Extra caritatem nulla salus.In order to become whole, take the "I" out of "holiness". सर्वभूतहितἌνω σχῶμεν τὰς καρδίας"Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is." -- Mohandas GandhiY dduw bo'r diolch.

Even if we have thousands of acts of great virtue to our credit, our confidence in being heard must be based on God's mercy and His love for men. Even if we stand at the very summit of virtue, it is by mercy that we shall be saved.

The title grabbed me... could you give a basic overview of it (so far)?

It's an exhaustive overview of the Metaphysical thought of Thomas Aquinas. Chapters: 1) Aquinas on the nature of metaphysics2) Our Discovery of the Subject of Metaphysics3) The Problem of Parmenides and the Analogy of Being4) Participation and the Problem of the One and the Many5) Essence-Esse composition and the One and the Many6) Relative Non-being and the one and the many7) Substance-Accident composition8 ) Substance-Accidents, and Esse9) Prime Matter and Substantial Form10) Arguments for God's existence (Introductory Remarks)11) Arguments for God's Existence in Earlier Writings12) The Five Ways13) Quidditative Knowledge of God and Analogical Knowledge14)Concluding Remarks

This is quite a scholarly look at Aquinas, from the perspective of a scholarly Thomist. One need not agree with all of Wippel's arguments to appreciate this book.

If you will, you can become all flame.Extra caritatem nulla salus.In order to become whole, take the "I" out of "holiness". सर्वभूतहितἌνω σχῶμεν τὰς καρδίας"Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is." -- Mohandas GandhiY dduw bo'r diolch.

Fascinating read. It speaks about how when we focus on certain things, our minds tend to filter out the unexpected or unusual, how we tend to have more trust in personal testimony than statistical data, even when the data says something much different (because we naturally prefer narrative, with its appeal to emotion, to abstract data), and how faulty our memories can be (including the phenomenon of failure of source memory, where we appropriate other peoples' stories into our personal narratives and make them our own). Now I understand why my brother always takes my stories and tells them back to me years later as something that happened to him! Anyway, if you're into this kind of thing, I highly recommend this book!

Why Evolution is True, by Jerry A. Coyne... on audiobook... I listen while I do housework. Great book.

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"This is the cross - to become dead to the whole world, to suffer sorrows, temptations and other passions of Christ; in bearing this cross with complete patience, we imitate Christ's passion and thus glorify our God the Father as His sons in grace and co-heirs of Christ." --St. Symeon the New Theologian

Giving Aristotle's Categories another try. I also started reading Aristotle's metaphysics with Aquinas' commentary.

I think I might read posetior analytics.

Ah, I have a Greek-English copy of that one. But I first want to understand the Metaphysics and the Categories before I move on, and they are giving me enough troubles already. My crude Platonist mind has difficulties grasping the subtleties of the Philosopher. Luckily Aquinas is helping me a bit

How are you enjoying tBA, Quinault? It took me a very long time to even consider reading non-canonical Sherlock Holmes stories but after reading a few short story anthologies, I ended up giving the Mary Russell series a shot and love them!

The book started out kind of slow, but I enjoyed it very much. I started reading The Moor, that is more difficult to get into.

Giving Aristotle's Categories another try. I also started reading Aristotle's metaphysics with Aquinas' commentary.

I think I might read posetior analytics.

Ah, I have a Greek-English copy of that one. But I first want to understand the Metaphysics and the Categories before I move on, and they are giving me enough troubles already. My crude Platonist mind has difficulties grasping the subtleties of the Philosopher. Luckily Aquinas is helping me a bit

From what I understand, posterior analytics, and physics both give some back ground that are helpful in reading Metaphysics.

The Stranger, by Albert Camus (yes, again)The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, by JRR Tolkien (first time in many years)The Brief English Handbook, by Dornan and Dawe (it'll learn me goodly!)

Has anyone read anything by Alasdair MacIntyre? Just curious what folks think of him.

I am reading Faust, albeit at such a slow place to comprehend what the hell is going on. I don't know if I'm up to the challenge to be honest, but I'll readily admit it is a beautiful work thus far.

And Nico, you're favorite word "vouchsafe" is in the translation.

Interesting guy, old Alasdair. He eventually becomes a kind of Thomist, but not quite your typical one. He is very interested in discussions concerning the validity and objectivity/subjectivity of reason.